The Children's Attitudes Toward the Environment Scale for Preschool Children

Abstract

The development of the Children's Attitudes Toward the Environment Scale-Preschool Version (CATES-PV) is reported. The scale was administered to 42 preschool children. Their parents (34 mothers, 30 fathers) completed 2 environmental attitude scales, an environmental knowledge scale, and a questionnaire concerning environmentally related home practices. The scale has acceptable reliability, with a Cronbach's alpha of .68. Construct validity of the scale was suggested by the pattern of relationships found between child and parent measures. Specifically, children's attitudes were not correlated with verbal ability, but with the degree to which children participated in environmentally relevant activities in the home. The implications of those results for preschool curricula and practices are discussed.

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Notes on contributors

Karen E. Diamond

Lynn M. Musser is at the Department of Psychology, American University, Washington, DC. Karen E. Diamond is with the Department of Child Development and Family Studies, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.